The European Union-funded International Organisation for Migration (IOM) programme is currently under scrutiny as returned migrants in West Africa start to complain about a score of empty promises for help.
The IOM is receiving almost all of its funding from the EU, with a budget estimated at around $380 million for the years 2022-2025. During that period, it allocated 58% of its funds for assistance to migrants who had been returned to their home country. According to the IOM, it helped return over 100,000 migrants to their home countries in North and West Africa.
A recent report from the Associated Press contacted some of the migrants who had returned to Guinea and Gambia. Many reported missed promises and a general sense of abandonment from the IOM. Despite what Francois Xavier Ada, the head of the IOM regional office in West Africa, told the AP about 60,000 completed reintegration processes, the reality seems more grim due to poor conditions in the home countries of the migrants and scarce resources.
One issue highlighted in the reportage is that the EU has few ways of checking how the money sent outside of the EU is actually spent. The European Court of Auditors, for instance, upon auditing the first years of the IOM programme, was unable to demonstrate sustainable reintegration results due to difficulties in monitoring spending.
A Gambia-based journalist who spoke with AP, Moustapha Darboe, said that there are yearly waits for training programmes, if they are available at all. Other witnesses reported constant delays, and eventually, the IOM stopped responding.
The organisation is part of a push from the EU to limit illegal immigration, together with an effort to block migrants from reaching Europe in the first place. So far, it appears to have achieved this result for migrations from West Africa, with over 20% fewer illegal migrants crossing into Europe in the first eight months of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, and over 50% fewer than in 2023. According to experts, IOM has helped people escape inhumane situations and facilitated safe returns, but it is currently failing to follow up on its promises for restarting their lives.
This article used information from The Associated Press.
